[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by triqui

Niefel Giants have several difference to Annakites. First, they are cheaper (as in much cheaper). Second, they don't have encumbrance 7. Third, they have a frost aura that can help them to kill masses of troops (Except cold inmunes). So no, they are not in the same case than Annakites trying to kill chaff with 75 gold per attack ratio. Plus, in my opinion, Niefleheim would need a nerf more than Annakites did, but that's matter for another discussion.

Yes, they do have some differences. Lets start with they're in EA instead of MA, and so the expected opposition is stronger in the early game. Lets also note that they have weaker gear overall, and that they are vulnerable in hot provinces.

Niefl Jarls could stand to be nerfed. Niefl *Giants* not as much. In fact, its generally considered better to ignore the Niefl Giants at the moment and use Jotun Skinshifters.

And you still haven't answered the question: namely what other bless even conceivably works with them. Maybe because there isn't one?

I believe the Niefl Giant gold to attack ratio is 125g per attack, for anyone keeping track.

You know what other question you haven't answered? What other blesses worked previously with Anakim that no longer work. This may also be because no one has ever advocated a bless other than E9+ N4+ for anakim. Ever. If you'd like to provide *evidence* to the contrary, please link such posts. If you'd like to upload turn files from a game where Ashdod used Anakim with a bless other than E9+ N4+ and did well, that would also work. My guess is that you have no such evidence.

Or we can agree that everyone sane used a big E bless with a smaller N bless, and that to pretend they will ever be played otherwise is pure sophistry. Then the question becomes 'are they still worth using with that bless?', and all other considerations are irrelevant.

The fact it fly, has a decent fighting chasis, and, maybe, it petrifies everything that attacks them also had something to do with it. Actually, in my opinion, it was the other way around. It's not that Oiorpatas benefit from E9N4 more than they'll do from, say, W9B4 or whatever. The thing is they ended having that bless, becouse Gorgon was so awesome that nobody else used other chasis. And once you are pigeonholed to a Chasis that has Earth and Nature, it makes a lot of sense to have a E/N bless. There were cheap ways to get E9/N4 with other pretenders. People used the Gorgon becouse of the chasis.

You're wrong as a matter of fact here. Gorgon is available to multiple nations, but was only nerfed because of its availability to Sauromatia. Either QM or Llamabeast, maybe both, have said as much. So there's something specific to Sauromatia as to why it was nerfed, and as the chassis strength is clearly a feature of it in itself, that clearly isn't it because the Pans also had full access to that.

Recruitable sacreds, otoh, and recruitable thugs, are nation specific. The logical conclusion is Sauromatia was a problem because the cheap E9N4 bless with an awake SC was too much due to the bless effect on Sauromatia's recruitables. (Whether it was thugs or troops is rather irrelevant).